From left, Quade, Kenzie and Forrest Renfro of Boise, Idaho, hold their first-ever lingcod, caught March 21 while fishing out of the Port of Brookings, Ore., with Capt. Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing. The lings were caught on jigs tipped with rockfish bellies marinated in Pautzke Nectar. Courtesy of Andy Martin / Wild Rivers Fishing

After the last few weeks of dry weather left the Smith and Chetco rivers running low and clear, the big rains last weekend have the rivers back in good fishing shape for what could be one of the last pushes of steelhead of the season.

Ocean fishing

Lingcod and rockfish have remained plentiful in Brookings Harbor this week, though Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing advised that the lingcod have started moving off of their spawning beds and into deeper water and he has switched to using heavier jigs.

When I came back to Del Norte High School in 1980 to work in the football program, I found that the starting quarterback was a sophomore with one year of experience as the starting quarterback. It is not often that you find that kind of talent but Reece Stacey had it.

Brothers Wyatt (left) and Thunder (right) Lewis both earned first-place belts at the Rumble in Reno on Feb. 28. Submitted

Wyatt, Thunder have become two of the top wrestlers in the nation for their age

Wyatt (6) and Thunder Lewis (8) have spent a lot of time in the car over the past year. It took 35 hours to get to Tulsa in January and 22 to get to Denver last weekend, not to mention trips to New Mexico, Washington, Nevada, Oregon and all over California. For every hour spent on the road, however, they have spent many more on a wrestling mat.

It is that dedication to practice, in tandem with plenty of natural talent, that allows the Lewis family to bring some of the most coveted awards in youth wrestling home to Smith River from those long trips.

Sheldon Thuemler, right, and Scott Lindsay, left, run through Jedidiah Smith State Park during the Redwood Rild Wiver Run on Saturday. Thuemler and Lindsay took second and third overall respectively in the 15K. Del Norte Triplicate / Michael Zogg

Sun shines on 241 participants in another successful Redwood Wild River Run in 2015

The 2015 Redwood Wild River Run brought 241 people to the covered bridge on South Fork Road for the annual event. This year’s run featured a pretty even split of runners from Oregon and California with two more runners from Boise, Idaho. and another pair of participants from Malden, Maine.

Although the 241 runners was down a little bit from the record setting turnout of 272 in 2014, that was just fine by organizer Ralph Hirt, who has to deal with every runner as they crossed the finish line.

“That is what I would call ideal,” Hirt said. “It is just my personal feelings, but I think that is about what we can handle comfortably at the finish line. When we go over 250 runners it gets difficult. I think between 230 and 250 is ideal.”

The Tsunami All-Starz Cheer teams kicked off the month with a pair of national competitions in Portland on March 6-7 and Salem on March 13-14 and brought home plenty of hardware, including five first-place finishes and two more runner-up placers.

In Portland, the senior team was tied for first place after the first day of competition before taking second place overall. The All-Starz picked up a pair of first-place finishes in the sole and trio competitions in Portland.

It was a tough trip south to Santa Rosa for the Del Norte baseball team as the Warriors competed in the El Molino Tournament Thursday through Saturday. After a pair of tight losses on each of the first two days, the Warriors pulled out an 8-0 victory over tournament host El Molino in its third and final game.

“Our hitting came alive. Our pitching was good — Johnny Calderon pitched the whole game — and our defense was good,” said Del Norte head coach Travis Johnson. “What was missing in the first two games showed up in that game.”

It wasn’t as close as the final scores indicated, but the Del Norte junior varsity baseball team came up big when it had to in Santa Rosa to win the tournament.

The Warriors beat Kelsyville 3-2 on Saturday in the quarterfinals topped Santa Rosa 5-1 in the semifinals Friday and won the championship 19-3 by mercy rule.

“We had three outstanding performances from our starting pitchers,” said Del Norte JV head coach Sean Harper. “The kids did an outstanding job of running the bases and I thought we had a great defensive effort overall for the whole tournament. We made a couple mistakes in the championship game, but they hung in there and didn’t get their heads down.”

The Del Norte boys golf team competes in the third Humboldt-Del Norte League meet of the season at the Peau Pre Golf Course in McKinleyville on Thursday.

Warrior junior and two-time HDN individual champion Kobie Lockwood continued to distance himself from the rest of the league, shooting the lowest score overall with 74. Lockwood has shot the lowest score in each of the three league meets thus far.

Cameron Schults shot 93; Ben Slayton shot 99; and Taylor Westbrook shot 103 to round out the team score for the Warriors.

The Warriors will be back in action on Monday, March 30, at Benbow Golf Course in Garberville.

Liz Brown of Medford holds one of several lingcod she caught Monday out of the Port of Brookings while fishing with guide Andy Martin of Wild Rivers Fishing. Photo Courtesy of Andy Martin / Wild Rivers Fishing

With rivers still slumping, ocean fishing has seen good action in Brookings and Crescent City

Not much has changed for local anglers in the last week. The Smith and Chetco rivers are running a little higher with a little more water, but not many people have been after steelhead this week.

Ocean fishing

It has been a good year for rockfish and lingcod fishing out of Brookings Harbor in 2015, and the bottom fish were still plentiful over the weekend, according to fishing guide Andy Martin of Wild River’s Fishing.